The Ever Changing Variable (2)

Once the flash of light enveloped the entire void, the next things to happen were about the only things that I had a decent understanding of.

Sudden world-building.

People form around me, or I'm in a desolate area.

My personality slowly confirms into one and stays constant for as long as I am in the world.

After the flash of light receded, I found myself in an alleyway wearing a school uniform. I looked around myself to see what sort of situation I might be in and found that there was nobody around me. It was a calm first appearance into the world. I didn't understand why, but every once in a while, the world around me would be calm once it was made a reality.

After examining my general location, I looked over at the screen that stood before me. Its contents were now updating to the new world that was being generated.

___

Role: 'Protagonist'

Character Name: ???

Age: 16 years old

Height: Approximately 5'7 feet

Weight: ???

<Appearance>

Facial Features: Long silky black hair, thin face, normal-sized nose, normal-sized mouth. Dark brown eyes with prominent dark circles. A Scar on the forehead (above the left eye)

Clothing: School Uniform. Colours- Brown and White.

<Main details>

Setting Information: You are a young high-school student who is bullied at school.

Core personality traits:

- Depressed, Suicidal, Lonely (Main)

- Ambitious, ???, Angry (latent)

[Smaller details have been omitted or do not exist]

___

I looked at the screen for a while with unknown emotions. Mostly because I did not have the constant emotions of my new self instilled within me yet.

I found the world-building to be fairly lacking. The view past the first couple of houses around me did not exist. It wasn't created completely yet. This led me to the conclusion that this would probably be a very short-lived world.

And thus, I prepared myself for my new emotions to finally sink in. As my new 'self' began to take form, my memories began scattering away to a place unknown. Somewhere that I could no longer access them, even as broken fragments.

***

I stared into the screen in front of my eyes. It was an odd sight. I didn't understand why it was there at all. I tried walking around a little and it kept following me. I tried to touch it, but my hand went right through the screen.

I gave up on trying to understand the screen's possibility of existence within a minute and started to read its contents.

___

Role: [Applicable individual is forbidden from viewing this information in his current mindset]

Character Name: Cain Krueger

Age: 16 years old

Height: 5'7

Weight: 64kg

<Appearance>

[Applicable individual is already well versed in his appearance]

<Main details>

[Applicable individual is forbidden from viewing this information in his current mindset]

[Smaller details have been omitted or do not exist yet]

___

It was a screen that hovered in the air before me and contained information about me. I didn't understand the reason why it existed though.

I tried looking further down the direction in which the screen was obscuring when the screen immediately disappeared into thin air.

Was it just an illusion by some chance?

I sighed and continued walking to school. I couldn't be bothered to think about it.

***

[And thus, the storyline followed its course, as destined by the author. It took a while, but eventually, it ended.]

[And thus, the 'Protagonist' was once again thrown into the void without any emotions or memor-...wait what?]

"Who are you?", a man spoke, a few metres away from where I sat.

"Why is there a room afloat in the void?"

I trembled in place. Why was he here? How could he be here?

"Answer me. Who are you? Why is this room afloat? Why does your voice echo in a weird and familiar way?", he spoke while glaring at me.

"And if you don't answer me, then I don't see a reason why I shouldn't kill you."

I gulped at the words spoken by the man. I was shocked at the stability of his 'self' as well.

"Hello, uhh.... your name?", I spoke in a shaky voice.

"Grey Heartman"

"Ah, hello sir Grey.", I greeted him as if he were someone far superior to me subconsciously.

"To answer your first question, I am someone that can be called a 'narrator'."

The man looked at me with a confused expression and asked again. "What does that mean exactly?"

"Well, it means that I narrate the events that are happening in words. Other than that, I have no other 'sense of self'. I am simply a nameless puppet who narrates."

The man looked at me with his piercing eyes for just a little longer before making an expression that he was content with whatever answer he had gotten. After that, he asked me his second question once again.

"Why is there a room afloat in this void? And why is it just the room? There is a door that leads into here, but other than that, there is no sign of a room existing on the outside. It's as if magic makes a room exist beyond the door. So.... What exactly is this room?"

I answered his question immediately after without any hesitation.

"Well, this room is technically part of the void. So am I. I existed within this void as well. But I had the ability to narrate. And I realised that when the 'Author' is unconscious, I can do just that on my own. And thus, I made myself a body and a room. I also made myself a 'personality' as every story had a surefire rule that every character was to have one."

"..."

The man remained silent for a while after hearing my answer. He seemed to be pondering over something. My body kept shaking all this time regardless.

That was because the man in front of me was none other than the 'Protagonist'. For some unknown reason, he was now standing before me with a fixed personality. I had previously spoken to him as the 'void' and had given him a system from one of the many lives he had lived.

This system was only supposed to show him information about himself so that he understood what his situation was. It was simply a method for me to ease my guilt. Guilt that I now felt after obtaining a fixed personality.

The system was in no way meant to somehow stabilise his personality. The fact that this happened was either a mistake on my part or a variable I had not considered taking action.

I opened the information screen that I possessed. It was a screen I had personalised for my body that showed me the information on characters. It helped me guide the flow of stories in an easier way.

___

Role: 'Protagonist'

Character Name: Grey Heartman

[All appearance characteristics have been hidden by you]

[All personality traits have been hidden by you]

<Smaller details>

[Applicable character is in possesses a 'system']

System information:

- Displays character information

- Lets the character choose a personality constant

[Other information has been hidden by you]

___

"Ohhh", I sighed. It was a dumb mistake I had made without properly checking the complete settings of the system I had given to Grey-..... that I had given to the Protagonist.

Grey looked at me with suspicious eyes. I could see a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead as I opened my mouth. Perhaps an ominous sense of foreboding had crept into his mind.

[And then, the system that the Protagonist had received, started to malfunction.]

Grey looked at his screen with a worried face and then glared at me once again. He was about to run toward me when I spoke once again, through the voice of the 'narrator'.

[His legs gave out as the system's problems seemed to bear some physical fatigue.]

Grey fell to his knees and screamed. He locked eyes with me, his face full of contempt.

[And then, the system lost a vital ability. An ability that was keeping the Protagonist's mind intact. It could no longer let the Protagonist choose a 'constant personality'.]

As the words left my mouth, cracks were formed throughout Grey's body. His body started to become a cluster of fragments once again.

[And thus, the Protagonist returned to his life within the void. Faceless. Emotionless. Formless. An existence without a single permanent feature.]

With those words, the Protagonist now returned to his previous state, a formless entity. He floated out of the room and resumed his life afloat in the void.

I walked up to the door of my room and closed it shut. I added a lock to the room as well, just in case.

I came back to the sofa that I had set up in the room and sat down again. I closed my eyes once again and saw the entire void extending infinitely before me. Nothing, but pitch-black.

Within this void, I saw the entity float. All alone. Without a single thing about itself being a genuine, fixed constant.

I gazed at the ever-changing variable within the void. A being with absolutely no sense of reality. And as I kept looking at it, a foreign feeling nagged at me.

It was sadness.